giaver and dinkelberg's jewelers building terra cotta restoration nearing completion

exterior terra cotta restoration work is drawing to a close on downtown chicago's 40-story jewelers building (later known as the pure oil building). the southwest turret - one of four used to conceal water tanks for fire suppression - is the last remaining turret completely shrouded for repair work. 

thousands of cream-colored terra cotta have been repaired or replaced - boston valley terra cotta was brought onboard to reproduce several sections of terra cotta ornament that have since been reinstalled on the building's terra cotta facade (by looking closely at the images in this blog entry, identification of the newly made versus original terra cotta can be made by simply looking at the differences in glaze (e.g., the newly fabriated terra cotta has a might lighter finish).

the jeweler’s building is located at 35 e. wacker drive, on the southwest corner of n. wabash avenue was built 1925-1928. giaver & dinkelberg were the engineers and architects, and thielbar & fugard the supervising architects. the building itself is 24 stories high, with 17-story tower and three basements supported on rock caissons. the jewelers building was one of the last 1920's large-scale commercial structures in chicago to be designed in the classical revival style that became popular in the wake of the world’s columbian exposition of 1893.

LATEST PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGES OF JEWELERS' BUILDING ONGOING EXTERIOR RESTORATION

the links below represent previous posts covering restoration work on the jewelers building:

RESTORATION WORK ON 1927 JEWELERS BUILDING EXTERIOR TERRA COTTA WORK RESUMES AS SPRING ARRIVES

LATEST PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGES OF JEWELERS' BUILDING ONGOING EXTERIOR RESTORATION

RESTORATION OF CHICAGO'S JEWELERS BUILDING TERRA COTTA EXTERIOR IN PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGES

DOCUMENTING THE RESTORATION OF CHICAGO'S DOWNTOWN HISTORIC BUILDINGS THIS FALL AND BEYOND